Geoarchaeology

Terrain reconnaissance combined with knowledge of topographic, geomorphological and geological data is one of the basic steps in assessing the archaeological site or possible formation processes that fundamentally influence the origin and preservation of the archaeological record...

Geochemical analysis is an integral part of quality geoarchaeological research. However, the type of the analysis depends on the specific information we want to obtain. This means that, for example, if the aim of the research is to determine the distribution of elements related to...

The sense of the petroarchaeological analysis of ceramics is to evaluate the mineralogical composition of ceramic shards in order to determine, for example, the provenance of the material used to make ceramics, reconstruction of production technologies (forming methods, firing conditions) and variations in time and...

Sedimentological analysis is important for a cognition of circumstances of origin, function, and termination of archaeological sites. A specific contextual analysis of sediments based on the microscopic study of the in-situ sediments, known as the soil micromorphology, is often necessary for a correct interpretation of...

In the ERCA centre it is possible to make use of the possibility of scientific determination of a raw material of polished (ground) stone tools. A first step is a macroscopic determination of a raw material with a use of the comparative collection...

Raw material determination and determination of its origin is a specific part of the analysis of chipped lithic artefacts. The origins of the lithic raw material analysis are as old as the scientific research of this type of artefacts itself...

Documentation of lithics by drawing has been developing since last almost two hundred years. In the case of the oldest drawings, a volume of lithics was depicted by an artistic shading, later by a dense hatching (see e.g. Absolon 1935)...

X-ray fluorescence spectrometry laboratory (XRF lab) has been a part of the Archaeological Centre in Olomouc since September 2018. The lab is currently equipped with an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (Delta Dynamic XRF, BAS Rudice), two (mobile and a table) drills for a sampling and a laptop with...

Two basic types of methods are possible to apply in a frame of the electron microscopy. Each of these methods use different equipment and is based on different attitude and sample pre-treatment for the analysis and following outputs....

Since 1865, when a British antiquarian John Lubbock in his book called Pre-historic Times divided the Stone Age into older Palaeolithic and Younger Neolithic, the lithic knapped industry has been conceived as one of the key sources of our knowledge about the material culture, which...